Typically, Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is utilized to obtain information on the coupling between a port of a network switch and a network adapter of an apparatus coupled to the port. The LLDP is a protocol for performing various kinds of setting or administration by detecting a coupling destination node. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, when a network adapter 1001 of a physical server and a port n of a network switch sw1 are coupled to each other, the LLDP enables the network switch sw1 to recognize that a media access control (MAC) address of the network adapter 1001 to which the network switch sw1 is coupled indicates “A”. When the configuration is simple as illustrated in FIG. 1, in which the network adapter 1001 is not logically divided and the physical server includes only one network adapter, the coupling relation may be ascertained by searching for the physical server that has the MAC address “A” in another manner.
In FIG. 2, a physical network adapter 1002 is divided into a plurality of logical network adapters 1002a, 1002b, 1002c, and 1002d. The MAC addresses of the logical network adapters 1002a, 1002b, 1002c, and 1002d indicate “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D”, respectively. When the MAC address of the coupling destination node is acquired in the network switch sw1 via the LLDP, only one MAC address, which is for example, the MAC address “A”, may be obtained while it is unclear which port of which network switch the nodes corresponding to the other MAC addresses “B” to “D” are coupled to. In such a case, when some network failure occurs, the range in which a virtual machine implemented on a hypervisor exerts influence, or the like may not be grasped properly. Examples of related art include Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-203810, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-316724, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-124129.